I thought it might be fun to update some of the Hot Button Issues that we have discussed on this forum….

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 at 6:42pm
If the city is able to match the $1.1 million in grants, Community Revitalization Director Doug Adkins said 300 vacant and abandoned homes — about 10 percent of its such properties — would be demolished by Dec. 31, 2013.
Well Gentlemen the Land Banking Program legislation has passed and now it’s time for City Hall to put words into actions over the next 18 months. Mr. Adkins has stated that he will demo 300 homes over the next 18 months.
So that is 100 homes every 6 months.

He said the city is in the process of identifying possible dilapidated homes to be leveled.
Mayor Larry Mulligan said the city will seek the “worse of the worst,” and hopes following the demolition of the homes, property values in those neighborhoods will increase.
WHAT! I thought City Hall said we had 3,000 homes to demo! Do you realize what Mr. Adkins has spent on Code Enforcement over the past 3 years? He has allocated half the CDBG Funds this year to Code Enforcement to the tune of $326,565. (Oh yes we Feed the Beast very well)
Are you telling me after all this time and money they do not know where the worst of the worst are located? 

12-27-2012 UPDATE
Here we are five months later and it seems that the “worst of the worst list” still has not been completed. Not the first property has been torn down under this 2.2 million dollar program and the clock is still ticking on this 18 month program.
So now Mr. Adkins will need to demo 300 houses within a 12 month period.